More to be evacuated from Lebanon

Up to 50 more Irish citizens stranded in troubled-hit Lebanon are to be evacuated tomorrow.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern today said 25 people have already congregated in Beirut, with around 20 more elsewhere in the country.

He told an Oireachtas committee his team was working with other countries, including Poland and France, to assist their removal.

A department spokesperson confirmed buses will be collecting up to 50 people from the capital and from the south of Lebanon in the morning and will then make the long trip home.

Around 80 Irish passport holders already evacuated safely from the state are due to arrive in Dublin early tomorrow morning.

The group, currently in Dubai, is expected on an Aer Lingus flight and should touch down on Irish soil at around 5am.

Two busses carrying the evacuees arrived in Damascus, Syria, yesterday afternoon following the 12-hour trip from Beirut. They were then flown by an Irish Government-chartered plane to Dubai.

The evacuation of foreigners from Lebanon heightened today as Israeli warplanes carry out a seventh day of air strikes.

Around 1,600 Europeans have been moved by ship to Cyprus, and British warships are preparing to transport thousands more.

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson added: “The evacuees are all in Dubai at the moment and their flight is due to arrive in Dublin early tomorrow morning. So far we have no other updates.”